Bad Business (Test Recording)

A

AaronChapman

New member
Watched the movie "Heat" (great film) for the third time the other night and felt inspired to write this short tune. You guys offered me great advice last time which helped to clean up some of my tracks (hope to release those soon). I'm going to try to contribute more here.

Anyhoo, here's the song. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks.


Bad Business (Test Recording) by Aaron Chap | Free Listening on SoundCloud

Lyrics:

Baby, I want you to know.
My bags are packed,
but I can not go.
I hear the train whizzing by.
It pains me, this is goodbye.

But, baby please, don't look back.
being called to a place I hope to forget.
Please Baby, don't look back.
Being called to a place I hope to forget.

Of all days, I fear that I'll die.
If it's true, please don't cry.
Have to finish my business once more.
And then we'll be together.
I'm sure.

I'm thinking for the good recording I'll add a bridge or something to build some energy for the song's conclusion (seems to fall a little flat for me). I'm also thinking slow the tempo a little.
 
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I thought the guitar part was interesting and well played.

I would back the reverb on everything way off. To me it's way too much for an intimate song like this.

Not sure if there are mic technique problems or what. But words here and there really jump out. For instance the word "go" at :23. The vocal seems to move around a bit. Sometimes it drifts to the left. Then it moves to the center.
 
I agree there's too much reverb on the voice, but underneath that it's a nice tune that reminds me of Chris Isaac.

If it were me, I would try to make the vocals as intimate as possible by backing off most of the verb and bringing the vocals as close to the front of the mix as possible. I would get my mouth as close to the mic as I could and turn up the gain on my interface, to pick up every nuance without having to strain or raise the gain in my DAW. (However: I'm far from a master at this stuff, so there may be better ways that others here can suggest.)
 
The guitars sound good. The vocal is good too but it's not sitting in the mix properly. I don't know what to recommend, just keep it simple. My standard vocal chain is hi pass and compression, no reverb. Have fun
 
Like others noted, the vocal is a little unfocused. I'd go for something a little drier and smack in the middle, with a noticeable predelay in the verb (maybe experiment with different types) you're sending that track to, and narrow the spread and EQ of that verb as well. I think there's a fair bit of masking going on between the guitars and vocal as well, so high-pass the vocal [more].


Cool song.
 
Thanks for the input everyone. Seems the consensus is to get real personal and intimate with that mic, back off on the reverb (definitely), eliminate any phasing issues with the voice (push voice forward), and clean up any rumbles. I'm realizing now that the voice does tend to jump around too much. Do you think I should keep some predelay? I'll experiment some as Keith suggests. I'm glad the underlining song is good. I'll get to work and hopefully come back with an improved recording soon.
 
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